1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to motor vehicles. More particularly, the present invention pertains to an arrangement for extending the bed of a cargo-carrying vehicle equipped with a tailgate.
2. Discussion
Owners of cargo-carrying vehicles including but not limited to pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles often have a need to temporarily increase the amount of cargo space available to them. For example, a vehicle owner attempting to haul a standard four foot by eight foot sheet of plywood or drywall may have to seek other means of transportation or strap the cargo to the top of the vehicle. Unfortunately, some would be owners of smaller cargo carrying vehicles may purchase a larger vehicle simply to accommodate the few times a larger cargo area is required. Accordingly, such an owner would benefit from a device capable of temporarily increasing the cargo area of a vehicle.
Hauling cargo on the top of a vehicle presents a variety of problems. In the case of a vehicle with a soft top, it is impractical to attempt to use the top bow structure to support the weight of building materials. In other cases, the cargo is simply too long in relation to the vehicle length to safely secure it to the top of the vehicle. Accordingly, transporting this type of cargo creates the further difficulty of a possible safety hazard when the cargo leaves the hauling vehicle and enters the road. Lastly, if the vehicle is equipped with a hard top, many owners do not wish to risk damage to the exterior finish of the top in order to haul certain cargo.
Existing structures such as the arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,639 entitled "Tailgate Attachment for Extending the Cargo Space of Vehicles" have been designed for the purpose of increasing the cargo space of trucks and other vehicles. However, these devices have certain disadvantages. In some cases, unwieldy structures are temporarily installed into the bed of the vehicle only having to be removed and stored in a separate location when not in use. In other cases, the device interferes with normal day-to-day use of the vehicle when a bed extender is not required. In still other cases, the device relies on a vehicle tailgate opening parallel to the ground to provide support for the cargo to be hauled.